Changing the world whilst washing up

The power of a speech is very often overlooked. Indeed, rhetorical skill and oratorical eloquence are often seen as instruments of deception rather than sources of inspiration. And yet, there is surely something in a good speech that can motivate us like nothing else – speeches, just like any art form, can enthuse us with passion and hope and they can help us to channel those emotions towards action.

So that’s why we thought it was important to collect some of the most radical speeches ever made, so that you too can share in the powerful emotions stirred up by a great speech. We’ve put them in Chronological order, and the collection of ten speeches spans from the 14th Century to the late 20th! Of course, these men and women had flaws, but this doesn’t mean that their speeches aren’t inspirational or moving – indeed, in every speech, there is surely something we can learn.

1. All Men By Nature Were Created Alike – John Ball

In May 1381, Wycliffite priest John Ball addressed a group of rebelling labourers who would later take part in the so-called Peasant’s Revolt – a revolt that was partly caused by the introduction of the 1380 poll tax.

In his great speech, Ball argued that “all men by nature were created alike” and that the servitude of agricultural workers constituted what he called an “unjust oppression”. He believed in the equality of all people, and this conviction is clear from his address.

He urged the serfs to “cast off the yoke of bondage, and recover liberty”. They should fight for “equality in liberty” and battle against degrees of nobility and class. It is these words that are often cited as the inspiration for the June 1381 revolt led by Wat Tyler.

Now these ideas may sound pretty normal to most of us 21st Century readers – Ball, you might think, just sounds like your average left-winger. But this speech was written over 630 years ago, when it was considered dangerous to even think this sort of thing, let alone preach it. That’s why this speech is so important.

Sadly, both Ball and Tyler were executed as traitors for their egalitarian views. They were killed because their proto-socialist and progressive beliefs were seen as a threat to the established order of society. Still, their actions and their words live on. Continue reading →

Though this poem has become an absolute classic over the years, its radical pacifist message shouldn’t be ignored. Indeed, few poems could be more relevant in today’s world. At this very moment, people’s lives are being ravaged and devastated by violence and war. Soldiers are killed and innocent civilians are slaughtered every day.

Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” is one of the few poems that truly encapsulates the real horrors of war. He begins with a description of soldiers marching through sludge until, nine lines in, the men are gassed and fumble about looking for their gas masks.

His carefully chosen words and ingenious use of rhythm bring to life the terror experienced by the men of the First World War. For example, his image of “someone still yelling out and stumbling, / And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…” is frighteningly vivid, testament to Owen’s skill as a writer and to the realism of his verse.

But Owen, having spent time in the trenches, realised that the realities of war are all too often ignored. Rather than focusing on the fearful nature of conflict and violence (evident in Owen’s description of blood “gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs” and of “incurable sores on innocent tongues”), we tend to aestheticize and glorify the act of going to war.

We instill patriotic ardour into our people, and we present the death of young men as a sacrificial and heroic act. For Owen, though, war is not heroic, nor is it glorious. Indeed, it is precisely the opposite – a horrifying and terrible waste of young life.

So it is Owen’s own experiences of war that led him to see that Horace’s ode was wrong: it is not “Sweet and right to die for your country.” Rather, Horace’s aphorism is just an “old lie” perpetuated to accentuate the false necessity of war. That’s why this poem is so important for pacifists and radicals today.

This is yet another classic poem, and you may think it an odd choice. Before I actually began to concentrate on Blake’s words, I imagined this was simply some patriotic and nationalistic call to arms. But the poem is actually far more than that. Continue reading →

The following post is a guest post by Tom Bailey, a 19-year-old literary and political blogger. He writes on a variety of topics from music to politics on his own blog, where he also publishes his poems. His Twitter handle is @TomBaileyBlog.

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A couple of weeks ago, I was giving a speech at my old school about the refugee crisis and my time working in refugee camps. My speech was part of “Culture Week”, a school initiative designed to broaden the horizons of younger students, and the chosen theme for this year was migration.

I talked about how I’d decided to go to Calais when I saw that photo of Aylan Kurdi lying lifeless on the Turkish beach; how I’d worked alongside the charities Help Refugees and L’auberge des Migrants to deliver aid to the Calais Jungle; and how I’d later flown out to Lesbos and worked in Moria camp and on the shores of the Greek island as refugees crossed the threshold of Europe.

Refugees in Moria registration camp, taken by photographer and fellow volunteer Edward Jonkler.

One of the things that I said when I started my speech was that I didn’t want to focus on the politics of the situation. It’s easy to get carried away with questions of border policy and the social or economic viability of solutions. These are all important points that need to be considered when addressing a crisis like the one we currently face, but I felt that the talk would be most effective if I were to focus wholly on the human aspect of the situation. After all, I went to Calais and Lesbos for humanitarian reasons, not political ones. Continue reading →

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The following post is a guest post by Tom Bailey, an 18-year-old literary and political blogger. He writes on a variety of topics from music to politics on his own blog, where he also publishes his poems. His Twitter handle is @TomBaileyBlog

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This Thursday, on the 23rd of June, millions of people will be going to polling stations throughout the UK in order to cast their vote. The people of the UK will be deciding whether we should remain in, or leave, the European Union, a decision that will have a drastic influence over the future of our country. It will affect every one of our lives, and it will determine the role the United Kingdom plays in the world for decades to come.

The chance to vote is not something we should take lightly, not only because of the power each of us holds in our own hands, but also because the right to vote is something we should all treasure. When we cast our votes on Thursday, we should remember that in 1780, only 3% of the population of England and Wales could vote. That 3% was, of course, made up of wealthy white males who thought they and they alone should decide the future of their country.

We should also remember that there are still many people throughout the world who are denied the right to vote or whose votes simply don’t count. Even though universal suffrage is a key element of our democracy, we are still lucky to have it. In countries like North Korea, Zimbabwe, Syria, and China, citizens have little or no say in how their countries are run. To many people throughout the world, the idea that a government would hold a referendum seems an idealistic dream for the distant future. We, in the UK, are living that dream of democracy.

But we shouldn’t just feel fortunate that we have this right to democratically choose our governments. We should also feel grateful. Now, I’m not saying we should be thanking politicians or the establishment or the monarchy for granting us this right to vote. After all, the right of universal suffrage was not given to the citizens of the UK out of good will or kindness from benevolent bureaucrats. It was fought for.

Almost everyone will agree that Muhammad Ali was a great boxer – “the greatest”, in his own words. But he wasn’t just a great boxer, he was a great man.

He fought not just with his fists, but also with his words. He used his fame and reputation to champion justice and the rights of the black community, making him a hero for every generation. Ali strove throughout his life for the ideals that he held dear. He may not have been the most modest of men, but he certainly was a radical, as the following eight quotations demonstrate.

1. ” See, we have been brainwashed. Everything good and of authority was made white. We look at Jesus, we see a white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. We look at all the angels, we see white with blonde hair and blue eyes. Now, I’m sure if there’s a heaven in the sky and the colored folks die and go to heaven, where are the colored angels? They must be in the kitchen preparing the milk and honey. We look at Miss America, we see white. We look at Miss World, we see white. We look at Miss Universe, we see white. Even Tarzan, the king of the jungle in black Africa, he’s white!”

This quotation comes from an excellent speech given by Ali at Howard University in 1967. He shows, here, the systemic inequalities and prejudices in societies across the West – prejudices that, whether subconscious or not, are still worryingly prevalent in the 21st Century. The speech has now become known as his ‘Black is Best’ speech because of the way he railed against these prejudiced stereotypes and fought for the recognition of black people’s achievements. “The blacker the berry, the sweeter the fruit,” he once said.

2. “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over… I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality… I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”

One of the things that Ali is most famous for, other than his boxing, was for his public stance against the Vietnam War in 1966. He refused to fight for moral reasons, despite knowing that his refusal could cost him his boxing titles, his money, and even his liberty. Continue reading →

Aneurin (Nye) Bevan was the Minister for Health in Clement Attlee’s post-war government and was responsible for the establishment of the NHS. The son of a coal miner, Bevan consistently defended social justice and the rights of working people. Here are seven quotations that we think define his legacy as a radical politician and a man who should always be remembered!

1. “Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune the cost of which should be shared by the community.”

Today, the NHS is one of the UK’s most prized-possessions. The value, common-sense and necessity of free healthcare has become ingrained in the national psyche, perhaps because very few people remember living without it. But it hasn’t always been this way: in 1952, the idea of free healthcare was largely viewed as an absurdly idealistic hope. And yet, despite opposition and hostility, Aneurin Bevan fought for what he believed in and proved himself to be more than just a radical, but a visionary. If he hadn’t remained committed to his belief that illness was an undeserved misfortune, society today might be very different indeed.

Again, this quotation, in just 20 words, demonstrates the absurdity of paying for healthcare. Why should someone with more money deserve to live longer than someone with less? Why should lack of means have any affect on health and well-being? When put in these terms, the idea of healthcare in exchange for money seems wholly barbaric, and it’s something the USA must address. Of course, the only American presidential candidate addressing it is self-declared Democratic Socialist and radical Bernie Sanders – #FeelTheBern!

3. “It [the NHS] will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.” Continue reading →

For a long time now, the words “nationalistic” and “patriotic” have seemed to me to be largely associated with xenophobia, bigotry and prejudice. Political parties like UKIP and the British Nationalist Party have long been claiming that only they are proud of their country and their people.

UKIP’s 2015 General Election manifesto was emblazoned with the slogan “Believe in Britain” as if no other political party did. The English Defence League adopted St George’s flag (ignorant to the fact that St George was Syrian) as if to suggest that they were the true guardians and lovers of our country, and that no other political party could really care for England.

A quick Google search reinforces this unusual association between bigotry and patriotism. The so-called “patriot movement” consists of various conservative movements in the United States that include organised militia members, tax protesters, conspiracy theorists, and radical Christians who believe in an impending apocalypse. ‘Patriotism’ apparently equates with ‘loony’, too.

And just as these illiberal, conservative groups often pose as patriotic, so the left has forever been accused of the opposite: of having a deep loathing for the United Kingdom and wanting to systematically dismantle all of its traditions and institutions. In his novel A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor describes his early perception of left-wing politicians as men and women determined to see the destruction of everything ‘British’, from country-life and religion to cricket and farming. Continue reading →

The following post is a guest post by Tom Bailey, an 18-year-old literary and political blogger. He writes on a variety of topics from music to politics on his own blog, where he also publishes his poems. His Twitter handle is @TomBaileyBlog

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On Easter Monday, 24th April 1916, Irish republicans rebelled against British rule in Ireland and attempted to establish an independent Irish Republic. Various republican groups, led by the likes of Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed an end to British supremacy.

The rebellion was swiftly stifled, but sadly not before hundreds had been killed and thousands wounded. After Pearse and his followers agreed to a surrender on the 29th of April, republican leaders were rounded up and executed.

As the anniversary of the Easter Rising approaches, it is right that we should commemorate those who lost their lives during the rebellion. But, as we must always ask ourselves, how ought we remember them? How can we best do justice to those who did?

Well, perhaps we can find some guidance in the poetry of Irish Republican W.B. Yeats. In his poem “Easter, 1916” Yeats captures the conflict (mental and physical) of the Irish nation like no other writer ever has. The text is here:

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born. Continue reading →

Since becoming the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church in March 2013, Pope Francis has gone from strength to strength in bringing Catholicism into the 21st Century. He’s also shown himself to be a bit of a radical in the process! Here are six areas where we believe Pope Francis has taken radical and liberal steps in the last three years:

1. On Homosexuality

In 2013, Pope Francis famously asked, “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” He has consistently argued that God isn’t necessarily concerned with the sexual orientation of Catholics, but rather their faith and the love they show to others. He has also suggested that the church could be open to civil unions, and in October 2014, the Synod on the Family’s interim report affirmed the “gifts and qualities” of LGBT individuals. It seems that the Catholic Church is embracing a more modern view of the world and moving on from some of the historic texts and philosophies that criticise gay people.

2. On Refugees

Pope Francis has also repeatedly shown love and humanity towards refugees and those fleeing war and poverty. When European governments were attempting to come up with a quota for refugees, he reminded people that, “Behind these statistics are people, each of them with a name, a face, a story, an inalienable dignity which is theirs as a child of God…” Continue reading →

The following post is another written by Will Richardson, a literary and political writer and friend of the Radical Tea Towel Company. He writes his own blog called The Opinionist and his Twitter handle is @WillRichardson6. Agree with the post or not, we’d love your comments below!

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You know when you’re drinking a milkshake and you start to reach the end; you’ve drained it down to a diluted little pool of milk and bubbles and spit-back between the ice cubes, so you suck harder on the straw and it begins to make that gross slurping noise, kind of like: “phhhssshrrrawwwhhphhh”. Well that is a pretty apt beverage-based illustration of fracking.

As if we don’t know when to stop, as if we truly have no concept of the velocity at which we are hoovering up the life-enabling resources on which we depend, we have begun the process in the UK leading to desperately guzzling the final dregs from within the earth’s crust through fracking. All in the hopes we can power our futile existence for just a while longer until our planet starts to compact and crush inwards like a Ribena carton subject to a particularly greedy child.

Fracking is in vogue at the moment as the way to harvest non-renewable resources and it, as well as everything revolving around it, is absolutely bloody awful. Like frantic and suddenly bankrupt millionaires popping the cork on our last hurrah, through fracking we are attempting to live the lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to, frenziedly chasing the dream we once lived before the repo men come knocking on the door. And in a time when sustainable energy options are not only a dire necessity, but plentifully available and logistically workable, this is simply unacceptable.

Fracking, or ‘shale gas drilling’, as it’s more euphemistically called by George and David and Amber Rudd as they try surreptitiously to bring it into the public consciousness of acceptability, is a process whereby a rig drills vertically down and then horizontally a few thousand feet underground to expose cracks in the shale rock, in which are hidden pesky little gobbets of shale gas. Slickwater is then pumped down to widen the cracks, and then proppants – some scientific sand mixture – to keep the cracks widened so the gas can escape back up the pipe and be harvested.

You might think, perhaps, that forcing open cracks in the very foundations of the ground upon which we tread may not be the best idea in terms of the integrity of our land. Well, chum, you’d be right in thinking such a thing. The US Geological Survey itself has admitted that fracking has caused earthquakes in previously geologically staid states, i.e., states where earthquakes haven’t been usual for millions of years. Indeed, between 1973 and 2008 there were about 21 earthquakes per year in the central and eastern US. That pumped up to 99 per year between 2009 and 2013, and in 2014 alone there were 659 earthquakes! At that rate, the women’s sex toy industry is going to be bankrupted, seeing as most of the country is turning into one massive Sybian. The geological devastation wrought by fracking, then, is not up for debate. Fracking causes earthquakes. Continue reading →